It was the last day of a tour in Italy’s Ortler Alps, and Jeff Banks was guiding his clients up a steep slope with crampons on their boots and skis on their backs. Once they reached the top, they’d click into their bindings and enjoy deep powder on the way down to well-earned beers and warm strudel. Another group, led by Banks’ mentor, was about five minutes ahead of them, and around 40 other guides and their wards had hiked the same slope in the preceding days. So when an avalanche broke right at his feet, Banks only had a second to be surprised. Then he thought, This is how we die.
Banks wasn’t just worried that his group might be buried alive; the slide was sure to drag him and his guests over a set of cliffs. Banks instinctively jumped uphill onto the still stable snow above the break, and for a moment, he thought he was safe. Then, just as he remembered he was roped to his clients below him, they pulled him away. “It was like going down a Class V
